Purchasing schools/courses

Purchasing and Vendor Management

Purchasing and vendor management are important organizational functions. An organization’s purchases account for a large share of its total costs. The changing nature of today’s business environment and the move toward decentralization have extended the purchasing function to departmental levels so that it also includes non-purchasing professionals. Regardless of their specific roles, many managers and team leaders have purchasing and vendor management responsibilities. These individuals must understand the purchasing process and have a general knowledge of common purchasing considerations and strategies and their impact on purchasing activities at the departmental level. Equipping purchasing personnel in this way can help organizations save on purchases and build more rewarding vendor relationships. This course provides an overview of the purchasing and vendor management functions within an organization, introduces the stages of the general purchasing process, and ... [Read More]

Preventing and Managing Backdoor Selling

You will learn how to identify all of the various forms of backdoor selling, plus:
How suppliers disguise backdoor selling techniques in the form of innocent sounding questions
What to do when you catch backdoor selling already in progress
How to negotiate with a supplier who has already gotten an internal customer to commit to a purchase
How to apply the four components of backdoor selling prevention
How to approach the implementation of an anti-backdoor-selling policy
How to get support from senior management
How to effectively team up with stakeholders to address backdoor selling
How to develop messages for suppliers to dissuade them from engaging in backdoor selling
And much more!

Managing Supplier Performance

You will learn how to develop powerful performance measures for supplier evaluation, plus...
How to articulate the criticality of supplier performance
How to select suppliers for a supplier evaluation program
How to involve internal stakeholders in the supplier evaluation process
How to decide between supplier evaluation methods such as supplier scorecards and system metrics
How to decide if Supply Chain Event Management software will work for your organization
How to reward suppliers
How to correct poor supplier performance

Improving Quality in the Supply Chain

You will learn how to lead your organization through the four phases of a supply chain quality improvement program, plus:
What the critical requirements are for starting a supply chain quality improvement program
How to calculate the cost of poor quality and use it in your sourcing decisions
How to measure supply chain quality performance
Benchmarks for leading-edge quality
How to observe and interview suppliers to learn about their quality programs
How to evaluate and structure inspection programs, including disadvantages of inspections as a quality assurance method, determining sample sizes, and estimating probabilities of accepting defective goods
How to understand quality assurance terminology, such as parts per million (ppm), AQL, and more
The statistics involved in quality assurance and how to apply them to industry
How to use quality assurance statistics and process capability indices to evaluate suppliers’ quality capabilities
How to... [Read More]

Profitable Inventory Management and Control

You will learn all of the fundamentals of inventory management and control plus...
The 6 big inventory risks and how to mitigate them
How to forecast more accurately whether your business is stable, growing, declining, or subject to seasonality
How to set up the inventory replenishment cycle, including setting safety stock levels, reorder points, and economic order quantities (EOQ)
How to measure inventory management performance using metrics such as inventory turnover, fill rate, and various financial ratios
How to integrate desired service levels into inventory management and control decisions
How to conduct inventory analysis, including applying ABC Analysis/Stratification
How to reduce inventory
How to calculate cost savings related to inventory management and control decisions
How to evaluate the effect of lead time, including transportation considerations, on inventory
What postponement is and how you might apply it for reducing inventory ... [Read More]

Finance For Strategic Procurement

The standards that apply to financial reporting
How to create, update, and understand financial statements such as the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement
Accounting concepts related to inventory, including the goals sought by senior management and how a procurement department can contribute
How negotiated discounts and freight charges are accounted for
The difference between direct and indirect expenses
How buying or selling on credit terms impact financial statements
Why some purchases involve depreciation and how to calculate both straight-line and accelerated depreciation
The financial implications of buying and maintaining capital assets
How to expertly manage working capital and improve cash flow through smart supply chain management<
How to select appropriate payment terms, taking various cash cycles into consideration
How to measure a procurement department’s contribution to the organization’s financial p... [Read More]

Professional Purchasing Project Management

You will learn how to identify and execute the five phases of projects, plus...
How to create a project charter that will properly set management’s expectations
How to create standard project documents like work breakdown structures and Gantt charts that help to keep your projects on track
How to create network diagrams that will reveal realistic timelines for your projects
How to identify the critical path of projects in order to know where the biggest risks for project delay lie
How to identify the most significant risks facing your project
How to develop a risk plan
The four risk responses that are available to you
How to use project management software to make project monitoring easier, more accurate, and less time consuming
Tips for great delegating
Four ways of accelerating a project
How to properly use the terminology and apply the techniques used by experienced and certified project managers
How to report project pr... [Read More]

Executing A Global Sourcing Strategy

You will learn a strategy for selecting products, countries, and potential suppliers for your first global sourcing initiative, plus...
How to make your work easier by working with logistics support organizations such as freight forwarders and customs brokers
The critical details you must know about ocean and air freight
How to determine global shipment quantities and frequencies
How to ensure smooth customs clearance
How the various duties, taxes, and fees affect total cost of ownership
13 Incoterms and how to use them to properly allocate the costs and risks of global shipments
How you may be impacted by the large number of regulations affecting shipments to the United States
The advantages and disadvantages of the channels for your global sourcing effort, including international procurement offices, supplier’s subsidiaries and representatives, third party IPO’s, and direct ordering
The various global payment methods such as let... [Read More]

Basics of Smart International Procurement

You will learn how to assess the cultural differences that you may experience with suppliers from different parts of the world, plus...
7 key characteristics of cultural differences that you need to know to avoid any unpleasant surprises from your suppliers
How to determine whether international suppliers might be withholding bad news from you
How international suppliers differ in the importance they place on personal relationships
How the importance of contracts will differ among international suppliers
When you might face one of the worst shocks - an international supplier’s request to renegotiate a contract
5 critical clauses that should be included in every international procurement contract
6 principles for writing contract language that is clear and ideally suited for international procurement situations
Tips for reducing intellectual property risks
How to handle communication when you and your supplier have different native languagesRead More]

Expert Purchasing Management

You will learn how to report purchasing performance metrics to senior management, plus...
4 things about the purchasing environment that you need to assess right away
How to develop a purchasing customer service survey
Tips for improving purchasing staff productivity
The secrets for involving internal customers and establishing a successful Purchasing Advisory Board
The most important things to consider when naming your purchasing department
5 common purchasing department structures and their advantages and disadvantages
How to prioritize commodities that the purchasing department will source
4 indicators that you should look for to identify non-traditional areas for potential savings
3 different ways to assign buyer responsibilities
The types of various purchasing profit center models and the dangers of choosing the wrong one
How to staff your purchasing department with the right people
How to create a Purchasing Dashboard
How to set... [Read More]

Savings Strategy Development

You will learn how to identify sourcing and savings opportunities by analyzing your spend, plus...
How to define several types of savings and avoidances
How to create or improve a commodity classification system that optimally supports sourcing and savings initiatives
How to find and take advantage of easy cost savings opportunities
How to achieve cost savings by leveraging existing supplier relationships
How to negotiate savings without straining a supplier relationship
How to diligently manage costs by utilizing the Producers Price Index and developing your own Supplier Price Index
How to get everyone to apply the same, proven approach to cost savings by implementing The Ten Phase Approach To World-Class Sourcing
How to track the progress of your sourcing strategy
How to determine a methodology and strategy when writing an RFP
How to write an RFP that is aligned with the final contract
How to write an RFP that achieves the perfect balance o... [Read More]

14 Purchasing Best Practices

You will learn how to strategically measure purchasing performance, plus...
How to improve your spend management by implementing a buying plan
How to select the best suppliers by using cross-functional commodity teams, scorecards, and total cost of ownership analysis
How to improve vendor performance through a supplier performance management program
How to optimize supplier relationships
How to improve risk management
How to map and improve processes
How to leverage technology such as eProcurement and Internet Reverse Auctions
How to conduct benchmarking
How to achieve efficiency through the systemization of purchasing operations
How to utilize a strategic plan